GSN announced today that it has greenlit 40 episodes of a new original game show series, "WINSANITY," to be hosted by actor and comedian Donald Faison.
The show will begin shooting in early 2016.
Each half-hour episode of "WINSANITY" features a contestant attempting to rank ten compelling and surprising facts in numerical order, from lowest to highest (i.e. Which is greater: the number of times a man thinks about sex in a day, or the number of words a woman speaks in a day?). Every time a contestant is correct and wins a prize, so does a randomly selected portion of the studio audience. However, if a contestant gives a wrong answer at any point, they, and the audience lose everything, and a new contestant takes his or her place and continues the game, trying to win prizes that increase in value with each round.
Donald Faison, best known to TV viewers for his long-running role on the hit TV series "Scrubs" and the classic teen film and TV series "Clueless," will serve as host of the show.
"’Winsanity’ is a fun, raucous game where contestants play for prizes for themselves as well as members of the audience," said Amy Introcaso-Davis, EVP Programming and Development for GSN. "Donald Faison’s sharp comedic timing makes him the perfect host for this fast-paced game that is filled with terrific play-along."
"WINSANITY" is produced by Electus for GSN. Executive producers are Chris Grant of Electus and Barry Poznick of Barracuda Television Productions, Inc.
Faison joins the ranks of other relatively new black male game show hosts – Cedric the Entertainer ("Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"), succeeded by Terry Crews for the 2014–2015 season of "Millionaire;" Wayne Brady ("Let’s Make a Deal"), Steve Harvey ("Family Feud"), Alfonso Ribeiro ("Catch 21," "Spell-Mageddon"), Anthony Anderson ("To Tell The Truth"), Alfonso Ribeiro ("Catch 21, "Spell-Mageddon"), Common ("Framework"), and maybe others I’m not aware of. Did I just not get the memo on this seemingly intriguing trend? Or has no one else noticed? Not that I’m complaining. I’m glad to see these brothas working. It’s just a curious observation.
